Towards a Conducive Environment for Women HRDs 37 right to protest and to expose police brutality in this regard. Many of the socio-economic rights she continues fighting for, such as the right to water, education and shelter, are covered in the new Constitution. Yet they remain rights on paper. “While we are very grateful for the inclusion of social and economic rights, the challenge is that if we look at the actual actions of government and councils, they are shredding the Constitution. For example, we have a right to water yet they are coming up with the introduction of prepaid meters, which essentially affects my right to water” she says. Her work has been recognised internationally through numerous awards, including the United States’ 2007 International Women of Courage Award, the French National Order of Merit and, in 2009, US President Barack Obama presented Magodonga Mahlangu and WOZA with the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award. Jestina Mukoko is a peace advocate. She is the Director of Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP). Celebrity television personality turned peace advocate, Jestina Mukoko is one of Zimbabwe’s leading human rights defenders. She was abducted from her home in nightwear, held incommunicado, tortured and then charged as a terrorist in 2008. Yet she got the most satisfying moment in/of her human rights career in the midst of that ordeal: acknowledging Mukoko’s diligence, her captors asked her how ZPP always manages to get accurate information even when some of the incidents happen at 2 am. “It was a trying time but when that was said I felt a feather being pinned in my cap” she said. Today she remains resolute in her quest to bring peace to grassroots communities, as well as to monitor and document human rights violations, despite continuing harassment. Mukoko’s city office is often empty, as she trudges rural bush paths to transform both attitudes and behaviours of communities ravaged by political violence and other human rights violations. Her organisation has built a corps of peace monitors in almost every community. According to her “The state is particularly shaken by the fact that they are not aware of the number of eyes and ears that ZPP has on the ground who watch and record the breaches of peace.” Magodonga Mahlangu is a former sports administrator turned social justice activist with Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) where she found a home for her activist spirit. She has played a crucial role in building WOZA to the strong mass movement it is, practising the unique brand of non-violent methods seen during the annual Valentine’s Day Love Protests. Magodonga Mahlangu along with founder Jenni Williams have formulated a brand of nonviolent protest called “Tough Love”. WOZA describes this guiding principle as its secret weapon of mass mobilisation. “Tough Love is the disciplining love of a parent; women practise it to press for, and to bring back, dignity to Zimbabweans. Tough Love is a ‘people power’ tool that any community can use to press for better governance and social justice, especially Zimbabweans. Political leaders in Zimbabwe need some discipline; who better to dish it out than mothers!” Presenting her with the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2009, United States President Barack Obama said of Mahlangu “By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors’ power with their own power … that they can sap a dictator's strength with their own. Her courage has inspired others to summon theirs.” Rindai Chipfunde-Vava is an elections specialist and the Director of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network. Her core work is a minefield. Elections in Zimbabwe are fraught with violence, vote rigging and a skewed playing environment. It is in this minefield that Chipfunde-Vava, the ZESN director for over a decade, has invested a significant part of her life to fulfil the organisation’s vision of a Zimbabwe where a democratic electoral